Introduction

Zoitei is a way of writing phonetically. There are 24 consonants and 12 vowels in Zoitei, making a total of 36 letters (including four sounds that don't exist in English). The name comes from the Zatei constructed language, meaning "magic writing".

Usages

Zoitei can be used for both a way to write in a conlang and for phonetic voice synthesis.

Romanization

Before learning Zoitei, it's easier to learn with the latin alphabet.

There are two variants of the Zoitei Romanization:

ASCII - only uses a-z
Unicode - adds capitalization, ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, š, ž, ř, ň, č, ł, þ, ŋ (removes q)

Consonants

Since there are not 24 ASCII consonants to choose from, the letter 'h' can be used as a consonant modifier where 'sh' would be considered a single letter. The letter 'h' may also be used between two vowels to stand-in for a syllable break.

The consonants are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:

3f	0L	1L	2q	3q
0s	m	p	f	þ (th)
1s	n	t	s	š (sh)
2s	ŋ (q)	k	x	ł (lh)
3B	l	b	v	w
4B	c	d	z	ž (zh)
5B	r	g	ň (nh)	ř (rh)

Some consonant clusters should be written using shorthand:

long	short
dž (dzh)	j
tš (tsh)	č (ch)

Pronunciation

	IPA	English word	Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling
m	m	mean	miyn
p	p	part	piart
f	f	fool	foul
th / þ	θ	both	boaþ
n	n	no	no
t	t	to	tu
s	s	sibling	sibliyŋ
sh / š	ʃ	shard	šard
q / ŋ	ŋ	sing	siyŋ
k	k	card	kard
x	h	hello	xealo
lh / ł	χ	(chutzpah)	łutspa
l	l	lore	lior
b	b	balance	baelins
v	v	violin	vayiolin
w	ð	bother	bowyr
c	ɽ	-	-
d	d	dance	daens
z	z	xylophone	zayliofoan
zh / ž	ʒ	collage	kulaž
r	ɹ	rain	reyn
g	g	grab	graeb
nh / ň	ʔ	nuh-uh	niaňa
rh / ř	ʁ	(Louvre)	louvř
j	dʒ	jar	jar
ch / č	tʃ	chair	čer

Non-American-English Sounds

lh / ł: Think of it like an 'l', but your tongue doesn't touch the roof of your mouth, then pronounce like an 'h'. Alternatively, pronounce an 'sh' sound and slowly move your tongue away from the roof of your mouth.
c: Move your tongue between the positions of 'l' an 'r' pronouncing as you go. Once in the middle, tap the roof of your mouth, similar to a click. Alternatively, try saying 'd' but with your tongue as far back in your mouth as you can while still hitting the roof of your mouth with your tongue.
nh / ň: This may or may not exist in your dialect of English. Likely saying "uh-uh" will get you to make the glottal stop sound between the vowels. Alternatively, a short silence could approximate it.
rh / ř: Once you can say lh / ł, this is the same but voiced. Alternatively, you can think of it as a g sound thats held out, or an r but in the back of your throat.

Vowels

The 12 vowels (including semivowels but not gliding vowels) are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:

	loud	quiet
0s	y(h), {y}ie	y, ae
1s	i(h)	i, iy \| [y-,-y]
2s	a(h)	a, ia
3B	e(h)	e, ea
4B	u(h), {u}oe	u, ou \| [u-,-u]
5B	o(h)	o, oa

Lists are in order of preference
(h) in place of a consonant, or h for silence
{h} required notation around the letter in brackets (yearn -> yiern, wool -> uoel)
[h-,-h] refers to the associated semivowels for the listed "gliding vowels" (yeet -> yiyt, swoon -> suoun)

Romanized Spelling	Pronunciation
axa	ah + x + a (ah-huh)
axah	ah + x + ah (ah-ha)
iaxa	a + x + a (uh-huh)
iaxah	a + x + ah (a-ha)

Pronunciation

The example words are unlikely to be dictated the exact same way in IPA due to the vowels in a Zatei accent not exactly matching up with American English. For example, cry and light are notated in IPA the same way in the Cambridge dictionary, but it's important in Zoitei to distinguish that the vowel sound in "cry" is slightly higher pitched and slightly more nasal than the vowel sound in "light".

When the IPA ə sound (yh, ie) comes before an 'r', the IPA sound ɚ replaces it (the vowel becomes "r colored").

	IPA	English word	Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling
ah	ɑ	car	kar
ia, a	ʌ	but	biat
ay	ɑɪ	cry	kray
ai	ʌɪ	light	lait
au	ɑʊ	how	xau
ao	ʌʊ	out	aot
eh	e	fair	fer
ea, e	ɛ	end	eand
ey	eɪ	stay	stey
ei	ɛɪ	-	-
eu	eʊ	-	-
eo	ɛʊ	-	-
ih	ɪ	finish	finiš
iy, i	iː	fear	fiyr
iu	ɪʊ	ew	iu
oh	ɒ	gone	gon
oa, o	ɔʊ	telephone	tealyfoan
oy	ɯɪ	oi	oy
oi	ɔɪ	annoy	ianoi
ou, u	uː	soup	soup
uh	ɯ	book	buk
{u}oe	ɯ	wool	uoel
u-	w	well	ueal
yh	ɜ	dirt	dyrt
ae, y	æ	sand	saend
{y}ie	ɜ	yer	yier
y-	j	year	yiyr
io	ɔ	pour	pior

If you're having trouble differentiating pronunciations, you can think of them as the same sound but either having or not having a nasal quality:

Non-Nasal	Nasal
oh	ah
ea, e	eh
uh	yh
ih	ae, y
oa, o	a
ou, u	iy, i
ai	ay
ao	au
ei	ey
eo	eu
iu	io
oy	oi

Vowels and Syllables

When two vowels are next to each other, and need to be broken into separate syllables, add a diëresis (or for ASCII, a preceding h).

IPA	Zoitei Romanized
æ	ae
ɑ.ɛ	aë (ahe)
ʌ.ɛ	iaë (iahe)
ɑ.ɛn	aëan (ahean)
ʌ.ɛn	iaëan (iahean)
ɑ.e	aëh (aheh)
ʌ.e	iaëh (iaheh)
ɑ.en	aën (ahen)
ʌ.en	iaën (iahen)

The default syllable emphasis for zoitei by word is:

STRONG
STRONG WEAK
WEAK STRONG WEAK
WEAK STRONG STRONG WEAK
etc.

This can be overridden by using a double vowel for the strong syllables (double the first vowel for emphasis on glide vowels, double the last vowel for elongatation)

Punctuation

Writing sentences in Zoitei, requires the punctuation to come first.

English	Zoitei ASCII	Zoitei Unicode
Hello, friend.	:xealo, freand	:Xealo, freand
Hey, you!	!xey yu	¡Xey yu
What's up?	?uiats iap	¿Uaits iap

When using unicode, use “ ” (outer) and « » (inner) for quotation marks, otherwise " (outer) and ' (inner).

:ay tiold weam, ":its kald 'zoitei (maejik raitiyq)', ?xaev yu hyrd uv it"
:Ay tiold weam, “:Its kald «zoitei (maejik raitiyŋ)», ¿xaev yu hyrd uv it”

English	Zoitei ASCII	Zoitei Unicode
Them; you, and me.	:weam; yu, aend mi	:Weam; yu, aend mi
This: my enemy.	:wis. may eeaneami	:Wis. may eeaneami

Elongation

All words can be written with any number of consecutive vowels or consonants and still be correct. For instance, the English word ladder:

laedyr (no specific emphasis when spoken)
laeddyr (emphasize the 'd' sound)
laedddyr (really emphasize the 'd' sound)
laeedyr (drawn out 'ae' sound)
laeeedyr (really drawn out 'ae' sound)
laedyrr (drawn out 'r' sound)
laedyrrr (really drawn out 'r' sound)
laedieer (drawn out 'ie' sound)
laedieeer (really drawn out 'ie' sound)

Consonant Extensions

The extensions of the Zoitei writing system are added with the character '. These extensions indicate an alternate sound.

	4L	5L	6q	7q
0s	m'	p'	f'	þ' (th')
1s	n'	t'	s'	š' (sh')
2s	ŋ' (q')	k'	x'	ł' (lh')
3B	l'	b'	v'	w'
4B	c'	d'	z'	ž' (zh')
5B	r'	g'	ň' (nh')	ř' (rh')

Pronunciation

	IPA	English word	Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling
m'	ʙ̥	-	-
p'	pʼ	-	-
f'	ɸ	-	-
th' / þ'		-	-
n'		-	-
t'	tʼ	-	-
s'		-	-
sh' / š'		-	-
q' / ŋ'		-	-
k'	q	-	-
x'	h↓	-	-
lh' / ł'	x	loch	loł'
l'	ʙ	-	-
b'	ʘ	-	-
v'	β	-	-
w'		-	-
c'	ɾ	-	-
d'	ǀ	-	-
z'		-	-
zh' / ž'		-	-
r'	r	-	-
g'	ǃ	-	-
nh' / ň'		-	-
rh' / ř'	ɣ	-	-

Sounds

r': Rolled r
c': Sound between l and r
lh' / ł': ł with stop OR alternatively long 'k'
rh' / ř': Rolled ř
f': Long p, similar to an f (halfway between p and f)
v': Long b, similar to a v (halfway between b and v)
p': Pop sound (exasperated p)
t': Tick sound (exasperated t)
k': Click sound (exasperated k)
m': Unvoiced buzzing sound (trilled p)
l': Buzzing sound (trilled b)
b': "Kissing" Click
d': "Tsk" Click
k': Back of mouth click
x': Gasp / breath in

Script

TODO